Define flood plains from Gaumukh to Roorkee: NGT

New Delhi, August 10

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), in a bid to expedite cleaning of the Ganga, today directed the Uttarakhand government to demarcate flood plains of the river from Gaumukh to Roorkee in the state and submit a compliance report.

A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, which favoured a strict timeline for the demarcation of flood plains in the state, also sought a report on the total number of hotels in this stretch from the Harish Rawat government.

A flood plain is an area of land adjacent to a stream or a river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.

The NGT allowed the state government to seek the assistance of the Roorkee-based National Institute of Hydrology for identification of flood plains.

“The state government shall inform the tribunal whether cities, including Haridwar, Rishikesh, Joshimath and Roorkee, located on the stretch from Gaumukh to Roorkee have installed sewage treatment plants or not,” the Bench, also comprising Justice M S Nambiar, said.

The order came after the state government informed the NGT that it has not been able to finalise a detailed flood plain map and sought one year to complete the exercise.

The tribunal has now posted the matter for hearing on October 20. It had earlier directed the National Mission for Clean Ganga, the implementing wing for rejuvenation of the river, to apprise it about the expenditure details of the Rs 20,000 crore budget granted to it for cleaning and protection of the Ganga.

It had also issued notices to the Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal governments to explain how they proposed to deal with the pollution caused in the river that flows through their jurisdictions and submit action plans in this regard.

The NGT has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments—Gaumukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.

On December 11 last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on the use of polythene bags and plastic of any kind from Gaumukh to Haridwar along the river from February 1 and decided to slap a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamshalas and ashrams discharging waste into the river.—PTI